The Student Government Association (SGA) voted on Monday to join the School of Business Administration in funding the celebration of International Women’s Day with the Women in Leadership Forum.

According to txwes.edu, the forum will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 26 in Lou’s Place.

“We were originally planning our own event for International Women’s Day, but when we found out that the School of Business was putting on another event, we didn’t want them to work against each other, so we decided to try to help the School of Business make their event a little bit bigger,” SGA President Abbey Borghee said.

The SGA approved about $2,650 for the event which will provide lunch from Central Market, a meet and greet event on the mall, purple wristbands, decorations, cupcakes, and shadow box to showcase the event for years to come.

“The theme of this international women’s day is purple because purple signifies dignity and justice,” SGA Treasurer Lyndsey Bessinger said.

According to Bessinger, the School of Business’ original plan for the event was to provide three panelists and a keynote speaker along with breakfast and lunch, but SGA offered to pay for the lunch as well as set up a meet and greet allowing attendees one on one time with the panelists.

“We’re very excited for this event,” Borghee said. “We’ve never had an event like this before and I think that it’s going to be good for student life.”

Shelby Nowland, junior religion major, supports SGA’s decision to help fund this event.

“I think it’s a very powerful statement that the SGA decided to help fund the International Women’s Day event because we know that women’s rights are still the biggest human rights issue in the world, and even within our own country we still deal with women that are being oppressed and told that there are limits on what they can do,” Nowland said.

The SGA not only approved this funding during its weekly business meeting, but also amended its constitution.

SGA representatives of a specific school must now have a major that falls within that school, which wasn’t previously a requirement.

For more information on the Women in Leadership Forum or to register visit txwes.edu.